Page 49 of The Exception

Her knees went a little wobbly and Trav’s hands found her hips, tugging her flush against his solid body. It felt illicit—probably because it was—but Sonya melted into his warmth anyway as he backed her into the solid wood of her door. It would be so easy to open that door and invite him inside and, in that moment, Sonya couldn’t remember wanting anything more. It had been so long since a kiss made her feel this way and she wanted to drag it out as long as possible, damn the consequences.

A horn sounded as a truck rumbled past the house, and like the clock striking midnight in a fairy tale, it startled Sonya out of whatever spell she was under. Her eyes popped open and she wrestled her lips away from Trav’s, covering her mouth with a trembling hand.

What am I doing?

Trav snatched his hands away from her like she was on fire and took a large step backward. Even as the panic over what they’d just done was setting in, Sonya missed his touch, his warmth.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight as embarrassment and regret made her cheeks flush hot. What had she been thinking? She’d just gotten out of a relationship with a guy she thought she was going to marry, she and Trav were barely even friends, and topping it off, she was his preceptor. Even Dani had suggested banging him in a closetafterhis internship ended.

Emma was right. Maybe she wasn’t handling things well since the breakup and this was her wake up call. She had to figure out how to get it together becausethiswas definitely not her.

She took a few deep breaths to try to get herself together, but it felt like coming down from a high and her body was going through withdrawals. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and saw Trav leaning against the porch railing and looking just about as dazed as she felt. Even in the dim porch light, she could see his red, swollen lips and his hair was beautifully disheveled from where she’d run her fingers through it.

Most striking were his wide, dark eyes that were trained on her as he waited for her to give him some sense of how they were going to handle what just happened, and the palpable attraction that still burned in them.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, refusing to meet his eye as she picked up her clutch from where she’d dropped it and searched for her keys. “That was… I don’t know what that was.”

Trav swallowed hard. “Sonya, I… ”

She couldn’t talk about this now. It was late and all she wanted to do was sleep off whatever insanity had caused her to make out with her intern on her front porch.

She turned around and after two tries she got the key into her lock and opened her door. She didn’t turn back around to look at Trav until she was in her doorway with the door between them.

“It’s late,” she said. “See you at work on Monday?”

Trav stared at her silently for a long moment and she prayed that he would just let this go for now. She didn’t have the energy to deal with it.

He nodded once. “Yeah. Good night, Sonya.”

Grateful, she tried to smile but it probably looked like a grimace if it reflected what was going on in her head. “Good night.”

She closed the door and her body sagged against it. She desperately needed to come up with a recovery plan for what might have been her biggest mistake to date. But even as her brain tried to regroup and refocus, her body knew she’d remember that kiss for a very long time.

Twenty-one

What the hell just happened?

Trav climbed into his truck, his heartbeat still thrumming in his ears and the taste of Sonya still on his lips. It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about kissing her a thousand times, quite a few of them that very night. There’d been something brewing between him and Sonya for weeks, but now he couldn’t help but feel he’d taken advantage of a vulnerable moment.

The way she’d looked surprised and angry with herself as she’d muttered goodnight and practically bolted inside—that wasn’t exactly how he’d imagined it going.

He pushed his hands into his hair, tugging until it hurt, but the punishment wasn’t enough for what he’d just done. It was stupid and reckless. He wasn’t that eighteen-year-old kid anymore, doing whatever felt good, even at the risk of throwing his future down the drain.

Though, he supposed it was Sonya’s future that was more in jeopardy. He was just an almost-paramedic. She had a career, a reputation. He wasn’t about to fuck things up for her.

He liked her too much.

If he’d thought he could lie to himself about that, that kiss had proved him wrong. There was no denying his little crush on his preceptor had turned into actual feelings for the woman he spent most of his time with—who’d become a good friend. He looked forward to their study sessions and put an embarrassing amount of time into planning the meals he brought her. And tonight, when she’d shown up to that event dressed like a cover model, he’d let himself imagine what it would be like for them to be there together.

But he shouldn’t go there. Even if she was beautiful and funny and smart enough to make him question everything he thought he knew on a daily basis. Even if he found himself missing her on his days off, and thought, more than once, that she checked every box for him, it didn’t change the fact that they were professional colleagues. And colleagues don’t get drunk and make out.

But that’s not what happened. His buzz faded a long time ago and that kiss wasn’t a lust-filled mistake. There was a lot more than booze and impulse behind it. He’d been thinking about it for so long, and now that he knew how her body felt tucked against his, that mouth making soft sighs that belied every shield she’d hit him with, it would be impossible not to think about it. To wonder what other secrets she had.

Knock it off, Trav. It was a mistake.One he couldn’t repeat no matter how much he already wanted to.

But he really wanted to.

Christ, his mind was back and forth like a tennis match.

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